Game Profile

R-TYPE is a classic, side-scrolling arcade shoot-'em-up that was developed by Irem in 1987.

It's the 22nd century, and you are humanity's last hope against the evil Bydo Empire. Your ship is called the R-9a "Arrowhead" and comes with a standard gun, but power-ups and upgrades are available in each mission. Navigate through eight challenging levels that will test even the best gamer's reflexes. The SEGA Master System version features an exclusive secret level not found in any other release.

Game Review

Review

While we applaud Sega for bringing some of its most fondly remembered Master System games to the Virtual Console, we can’t help feeling that on this occasion it is a little bit pointless. After all, we’ve had a near arcade perfect port of R-Type on...

The PC-Engine (TG16) version is a nearly "pixel perfect" arcade conversion while the SMS version has of course significantly dumbed down graphics and serious sprite-flickering (like NES games). Both versions are identical when it comes to level-design and bosses but if you want a technical superior, almost perfect Arcade port then go for the PC-Engine version.

Though, at heart, I like the SMS version a little bit more because it seems easier to me. And I don't like how the screen scrolls up and down on the PC-Engine. This makes the levels sometimes confusing.

I just fail to see the point of this. Sure, it's impressive for an 8-bit SMS title, but it's clearly inferior to the TurboGrafx version that we've already had for a long time now. Unless you still haven't bought the TurboGrafx one and you're desperate to save 3 bucks, I don't see any reason to download this. This is one game they can keep in Japan.